


Accidentally, Flirtatiously

by orphan_account



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Royalty, F/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-06
Updated: 2015-01-06
Packaged: 2018-03-06 08:41:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3128258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Growing up in a palace with a king as a foster father leaves one quite jaded towards royalty. Guess that’s why Tauriel didn’t recognise the younger Prince of Erebor until after she tried to arrest him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Accidentally, Flirtatiously

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Hobbit fic so please be gentle ;u; 
> 
> Erebor→ Ereborian  
> Mirkwood→ Eryn Lasgalen→ Eryn Lasgalish  
> Dale→ Dalen

There was a commotion outside. Of course there was. Not a day went by without one-- from fangirls to freakish cult kidnappers, she had handled them all.

Scuffling, grunts, and then what sounded like someone being shoved up against the gold-framed portrait of Durin the Deathless which occupied the piece of wall directly beside her door. A click of handcuffs being fastened, and Tauriel breathed out a sigh of relief. Today, maybe, she would be able to get through a star chart or two--

“Aw, c’mon. You really don’t want to do that, mate.”

The voices came muffled through stone walls and a heavy wooden door, but Tauriel heard the beginnings of an argument. Astronomy would have to wait, potential threats to the Eryn Lasgalish monarchy came first. She pressed down a final post-it, stalked to the door, and threw it open just in time to hear,

“Where’s your captain? I’m telling ya, this is a mistake. Let me go, I won’t tell, and you two get to keep your jobs.”

As expected, there was a handcuffed man pinned against the probably priceless portrait. From his shoulder length hair to t-shirt and jeans -- _were those even allowed in the palace?_ \-- he looked the very picture of an unwelcome disturbance.

“How did you get in here?” she snapped. King Thorin had grudgingly promised the best security his country could provide for the delegation, and she had expected better than this.

The intruder’s head swivelled around to stare at her, or at least she thought it did. His sunglasses were almost comically large and covered half his face. “You the captain?” he asked at the same time as one of her guards said, “Caught this one climbing in through the Prince’s window.”

It had been foolish to hope for a peaceful first night in Erebor. Painfully naive to think that she would get any work done on her thesis. Because of course someone would try to sneak into Legolas’s room while he was at dinner. It wasn’t the first time that it had happened, and Tauriel knew that it would not be the last.

“Was he armed?” Tauriel asked, eyes travelling up and down the intruder’s body. No strange folds in his clothes or random bumps, but that was expected. Legolas had crazed fans of all shapes and sizes, and this intruder was probably just another.

“We were about to check ma’am.”

“Just hold him steady.”

Stepping towards him, Tauriel patted him down, and none too gently, for a weapon. The man did not squirm away from her, and Tauriel got the strangest feeling that he was actually enjoying it. When she felt no weapon, she breathed a sigh of relief and stepped back tiredly. “He’s clean.”

“You sure ‘bout that?” the intruder quipped back. “I could have anything down my pants.”

Tauriel rotated slowly so she stood directly in front of him, and glared straight into the ridiculously oversized dark lenses. “Or nothing.”

One of the guards sniggered. The intruder’s mouth opened for a second, as if in surprise, before curving up into a smile.

“You’re under arrest for trespass. What is your name, and how did you get past security?” Tauriel demanded. It was late, and she while she technically had no power to arrest anyone in this country, she wanted to get at least something done tonight, even if it was just a complaint to the head of Erebor’s security.

The grin under the ridiculous sunglasses widened. “Why don’t you come a little closer and see for yourself,” he taunted. “I’m sure you’ll find all the answers once you see my face.”

Raising an eyebrow, Tauriel gestured to one of the guards holding him.

The guard obliged, and removed the ridiculously large glasses. He examined them for a moment, then gasped. “Ma’am, this is nightvision tech. This model isn’t even _out_ yet.”

But Tauriel was staring at the face of the intruder. It was familiar, she was sure that she had seen it before. On the news? In a file? She was supposed to know who he was, Tauriel was sure of that. “You’re--”

Hurried footsteps turned the corner, and a man with dark blond hair strode down the corridor towards them. Tauriel blinked. The man was in dress uniform, and he was the Crown Prince of Erebor.

“KilI! I thought I told you--”

“Aren’t you supposed to be entertaining our Woodland guests?”

She blinked again, and then it came to her. The painfully informal clothes and the mischievous twinkle in his eyes, how had she not recognised him? Tauriel’s eyes went to the two bickering men and gulped. She had just tried to arrest Kili, the younger Prince of Erebor.

 

➶ ➴

 

Prince Kili thought the whole situation was hilarious. Prince Fili less so.

“If Uncle hears about this…” Prince Fili muttered as his brother was uncuffed with many bows and repeated apologies from the guards.

“Perhaps if His Majesty, King Thorin were to hear about this, he would ask the question of why His Highness, Prince Kili was climbing in through my Prince Legolas’s window,” Tauriel said stiffly. She paused for a moment, then added, “Your Highness.”

“Excuse me?” Prince Fili looked confused for a moment, then seemed to finally notice the apologising guards around him. “Oh! I didn’t mean you! That’s what I meant, about Uncle hearing that my brother did something like this.”

Prince Fili scowled again, and grabbed his brother’s arm. “What were you thinking brother? You know how important these negotiations are. What if King Thranduil takes offense and just calls the entire thing off? What will you do then, what will you going to tell Uncle?”

Slowly, Tauriel and her guards edged away as Prince Kili grumbled something that sounded suspiciously like “he’d probably thank me.” She had no business or desire to stick her nose into the private family dynamics of Erebor’s royal family-- she could barely handle Prince Legolas and his almost terrifyingly stately father.

“Later! Don’t embarrass me here,” Prince Kili suddenly hissed at his brother. Apparently, sound travelled well down corridors. “C’mon brother, not--” He jerked his head slightly towards Tauriel and the guards.

Why would he care what they thought of him? They were just a few Royal Guards from the Woodland City, and what they had seen could not possibly have been worse than the things that tabloids had written about him.

“What?” Prince Fili’s gaze travelled down the corridor, and seemed to fix on Tauriel for a second. “Oh, for Mahal’s sake Kili!”

“My brother and I hope that you have an enjoyable stay in Erebor,” Prince Fili suddenly said, one hand on Prince Kili’s back and forcing him into a half-bow. “My brother apologises for his intrusion and will endeavour to use the door from now on.”

Half dragged away by his brother, Price Kili still managed, to the great amusement of the guards, to turn around and mouth ‘see ya later, captain.’ They managed to keep a straight face until he winked and Tauriel felt heat in her cheeks.

 

➶ ➴

 

“I owe you one,” Legolas said as he examined the arrows his quiver. “Not a single one missing.”

“What?”

Legolas frowned. “You know, the reason Kili was here?”

Her friend was on first name terms with a foreign prince that his father probably hated. And the foreign prince in question apparently had reasons for climbing into his room through a window in his own palace. Tauriel didn’t think that the night could get anymore distracting. "There was a reason?"

"You know, that summer when--" He paused, and the look on his face said that he had only just realised something. "Oh! You weren't there. Didn't I tell ever tell you?"

"Apparently not," Tauriel replied wryly. "Seeing as all that comes to mind is 'where wasn't I and what didn't he tell me?'"

"Remember that summer when you were, fifteen was it? You came down with chickenpox and I had that competition. Father was frantic with worry."

"Fourteen." Tauriel could already see where this was going. King Thranduil had used the days he had begged off to attend Legolas's championship to stay in the palace and feed Tauriel soup. They didn't turn up until the last day, and by then, seventeen year old Legolas had been left practically unsupervised for almost two weeks.

"Well, uh, Kili was also competing and we sort of got talking."

Two bored princes at an archery competition, she should have known. And without King Thranduil's disapproving glare to keep Legolas from fraternising with well, anyone deemed unfit company for the sole heir to Eryn Lasgalen, he had done exactly that.

"Does your father know?" Tauriel dryly. She already knew the answer-- her foster father and King hated Ereborians with a passion; it wasn't a secret that his late Queen's family heirlooms were kept inaccessible to him in Erebor's Royal Treasury. He had tried to buy them back, but King Thrain had apparently laughed in his face.

"You're not going to tell him, Tauriel," Legolas said, the pitch of his voice rising. "I was bored, and everyone there was only after my money or status. You weren’t there so Kili was my only choice if I didn't want to die of boredom."

"I’m dreadfully sorry for contracting chickenpox at the age of fourteen,” Tauriel retorted. “ But that doesn't explain why Prince Kili was climbing in through your window, Legolas."

Legolas grinned, probably at the memory of more carefree times. "We had a bet. We’d take each others arrows while the other wasn’t around and the one with the most arrows would win. Loser buys a new bow for the winner. Guess this is his way of telling me that he hasn’t forgotten.”

“Are you planning on enlightening your father?”

“It wouldn’t kill you to acknowledge that he’s _your_ father too.”

That’d had this argument many times, and it had never ended well. Legolas was trying to change the subject, and it would probably work too. Damn Legolas, he really did know her too well.

“That would be inappropriate as he is my father by neither blood nor law. He is my mentor and King.” And there she went, for what felt like the thousandth time.

“Am I not your brother?”

She hated that question, because there was no right answer that she could give.

They had grown up together, as a family, and had made headlines for years. A terrorist attack leaves the King burdened with both a country and a pre-school aged little prince. Then not a week later, he takes in the newly orphaned baby daughter of the late Queen’s closest advisor and the Head of National Security as his ward.

Growing up had been a paparazzi's roadshow, and it had been Legolas who had been by her side every step of the way.

“You have always been my brother, and you always will be.” Tauriel placed her palm over Legolas’s hand. “Nothing will change that. But I am not your father’s daughter, and I never can be.”

“You once were. I wish you would just admit it, because I still remember the year you stopped calling him ‘father.’” Legolas did not look angry as he once did when they had this argument, only tired, and sad.

The amusement that she had felt only minutes before had been sapped out of her. She no longer wanted to talk to Legolas, and was even less inclined to face her King.

“Congratulations,” she muttered, standing up. “You’ve won, I won’t tell the King. I’m going back to my room now. Goodnight.”

Her hand was on the doorknob when Legolas called her name. She turn her head to look at him over her shoulder. He had not budged from his seat on the bed, but looked apologetic nonetheless. He would apologise for bringing up the subject, and as always, she would give in.

“Tauriel, I apologise if I’ve upset you. That was not my intention.”

She turned her head back towards the door to hide a smile. This was them, a pattern, endless repeats of the same old routine.

“I’m fine Legolas, you’re just being you.” _You_ who still felt robbed by his own status, of a younger sister. _You_ who is under so much stress to be a good Crown Prince and Heir to Eryn Lasgalen. _You_ who still remembered happier days and missed them even more.

 

➶ ➴

 

Lunch was an awkward affair. Awkward somewhat because it was completely silent, but also because on one end of the long table was King Thorin of Erebor and on the other end was Thranduil. There were perhaps twenty empty seats between them.

The fact that Prince Kili spent the entire meal trying to discretely catch Tauriel’s attention did not help in the slightest.

He’d had it from the moment moment she entered the room behind Legolas, and saw the dark haired man seated on the King’s left.

If he brought up what had happened that first night, Tauriel thought she might die, if not from embarrassment, then from the wrath of one, or both kings at the table.

“King Thranduil,” Prince Fili suddenly said, breaking the silence. All heads turned to look at him. “I trust that your accommodations are adequate?”

Thranduil inspected him, eyes taking in his combed back hair and impeccable suit which probably priced around a month of Tauriel’s earnings. She could almost see her King tick off boxes in his head. “They are adequate, thank you.”

“And your security?” Kili chipped in with a playful grin and another wink in Tauriel’s direction.

Tauriel tensed. Was this to be the moment she died of embarrassment as well as of Thranduil’s wrath? She rarely screwed up, so perhaps the king would take that into consideration. Apart from attempting to arrest a prince in his own castle, she hadn’t really made any other potentially international incident causing blunders.

Thranduil’s eyes turned to Prince Kili, and Tauriel could only imagine his thoughts as he took in Prince Kili’s slight crinkled shirt, with the top few buttons undone and no tie in sight. Both she and Legolas had been on the receiving end of that look numerous times, and had not enjoyed the experience.

“Tauriel, the Captain of my Royal Guard has not yet made any complaints so I must assume that too, is adequate.”

“And would I be correct to assume that the beautiful lady is Captain Tauriel?”

“You are correct to assume that,” Thranduil said icily.

When Thranduil’s voice took on that tone, most people would know it to be a hint to stop talking. Kili was evidently not one of those people, because he opened his mouth to say something else.

“So young? She cannot be any older than Kili!” The King of Erebor remarked. Tauriel could not figure out if she was grateful for this interruption. The weight of King Thorin’s measuring gaze on her almost made Tauriel step back. This was not the first time her ability had been called into question, but she was only used to whispers from palace staff and the occasional tabloid jibe. Never before had Thranduil’s decision to appoint her been questioned so directly.

“I appointed her personally.” Thranduil somehow managed to make each syllable sound as if it had a cutting edge, but to his credit, King Thorin did not even flinch.

“Then,” King Thorin replied, looking as if it physically hurt him to maintain civility, “Captain Tauriel must be a very talented young woman.”

Silence fell again, and Tauriel would have breathed a sigh of relief if not for the fact that everyone in the room would have heard. The sharp taps of silver cutlery on china plates resumed, until there was a hiss of pain and--

“Captain Tauriel,” Prince Fili suddenly said, rubbing at his arm. “I was just wondering if you would be attending the ball tonight?”

“The ba--” It had completely slipped her mind. Well, the ball had not but the possibility of her attending had not. “I am on duty tonight,” she forced out.

Out of the corner of her eye, Legolas grinned, and opened his mouth to speak for the first time in over an hour. “No you’re not, my beautiful plus one.”

She had never agreed to go with him. They hadn’t even talked about it. Tauriel opened her mouth to argue back, but then caught herself at the last moment. She wasn’t going to argue in front of the Durins, not while she represented Eryn Lasgalen.

Tauriel was going to take Legolas’s bow and hide it somewhere he would never find. She was going to make him sorry. Plastering a smile onto her face, she met the eyes of Prince Fili. “It that seems I am, Your Highness.”


End file.
